(CBS SF/AP) – Bay Area native and actor Danny Glover has received a Career Achievement Award in the Bahamas as he reflected on the role he played as Nelson Mandela while the South African leader was still in prison.

The 67-year-old actor said late Friday that he was moved by Mandela’s political writings as a student in the 1960s and acknowledged he was the only U.S. actor who portrayed him in a film before the publication of his biography and release from prison in 1990.

“There’s a great deal that comes back over a period of time, those great moments when you thought you were doing something of value, and that the work you were doing as an artist was changing the world,” Glover said.

He received his award at the Bahamas International Film Festival a day after the death of the 95-year-old former South African president and anti-apartheid activist. He earned an Emmy nomination for portraying him in the 1987 TV film “Mandela”.

“I think this is particularly special because it comes the day after the transition of someone who I never in my lifetime thought I would get the chance to meet, and someone who became a friend. He used to affectionately call me, `Danny boy’,” Glover recalled. “It allows you … to reflect on this absolutely wonderful opportunity I’ve had, what are the elements that went into that, to not only allow me to be the artist I’ve hopefully grown to be, but also the human being and the citizen, which is much more important.”

Glover has campaigned globally for humanitarian causes and is best known for playing Los Angeles police Sgt. Roger Murtaugh in the “Lethal Weapon” movies.